Sultana’s Dream awarded filmmaking grants to three projects by young women filmmakers- Fatiha Taiara Sporsho, Mahamuda Aktar Monisha and Monon Muntaka. The winners were announced on September 18 after a six month long competitive workshop.
With the tag line, “Breaking the Silence,” Sultana's Dream was officially inaugurated on February 22 to train and provide grants to young women who aspire to become filmmakers. 16 participants were selected out of about a hundred applicants to be trained by top filmmakers and academics from around the globe.
In the first stage of the workshops, the mentors included French screenwriter Philippe Barriere, Bangladeshi filmmaker Tasmiah Afrin Mou, Mahde Hasan, filmmaker and editor Chaitali Somadder, film producer Adnan Imtiaz Ahmed, Pakistani actress and filmmaker Seemab Gul, Pakistani filmmaker Saim Sadiq, Indian film producer and production designer Jonaki Bhattacharya, Indian film curator Meenakshi Shedde, sound engineer Nahid Masud, cinematographer Barkat Hossain Polash and psychologist Syed Iffat Hossain.
In the 2nd phase, the mentors were documentary filmmaker Elizabeth D Costa, researcher and New York University Professor Dina Siddiqui, film critic, programmer and journalist Bedatri Datta Choudhury and stage director and producer Reetu Sattar.
After 6 months long training, an independent jury board was constituted to pick the best screenplay. Jury board members included the director of the Goethe Institute of Bangladesh Kirsten Hackenbroch, film critic and screenwriter Sadia Khalid Reeti, French film producer Dominique Welinski and senior director of Asia Foundation's Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality Jane Sloane. The juries were impressed with the originality, diversity and significance of the screenplays developed in this program.
Sultana's Dream was organized in association with production company Khona Talkies, spearheaded by prominent filmmaker Rubaiyat Hossain. Goethe Institute of Bangladesh is the distribution partner for the initiative.
